<\/p>\n
\n\tSix months ago, Ryan Tedder experienced a fortuitous full-circle moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHis longtime friend, Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Savan Kotecha, texted him about an artist he thought Tedder should be aware of: pioneering Punjabi artist Karan Aujla. \u201cHe sends me a link and I was like, \u2018Yeah, I already know who this guy is,\u2019\u201d recalls Tedder today, sitting in his West Hollywood home studio.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile performing with OneRepublic at the second edition of Lollapalooza India in January 2024, Tedder was asking locals and the band\u2019s promoter \u201cwho\u2019s popping\u201d in India. They all mentioned Karan. \u201cI went and listened to the music and I was like, \u2018Oh, this is super tight. This is different,\u2019\u201d he says, explaining Punjabi as an Indian language that is emerging as its own subgenre and growing rapidly both locally and globally. At the time, Tedder mentally bookmarked Karan and carried on \u2013 until Kotecha came along and filled the gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tKotecha introduced Tedder to Karan\u2019s friend and producer, Ikky, \u201cand that\u2019s where the whole thing connected,\u201d says Tedder. The two met in L.A. and Ikky played Tedder in-progress tracks, including one that was called \u201cDassde\u201d at the time. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, this is crazy.\u2019 I asked him what the phrase meant, and he said it means \u2018tell me.\u2019 I wish all sessions went that quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBefore this collaboration, Ikky and I always used to talk about how we wanted to do something out here with our music,\u201d says Karan, 28, who is seated next to Tedder while on a quick trip to Los Angeles to shoot the song\u2019s music video. \u201cAnd then he had mentioned you guys were talking and I thought he was just kidding. Like, it\u2019s not gonna happen. And then I remember being on tour Ikky sends me a rough draft\u00a0 and the first thing I hear is [Ryan] singing. And then it\u2019s me jumping in with my Punjabi verse. And I was like, \u2018Oh shit, it\u2019s a Punjabi-English track.\u2019 I was so excited at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd now, on Wednesday (Feb. 19), their historic collaboration finally arrives, marking both OneRepublic and Karan\u2019s first English-Punjabi collaboration. The song\u2019s music video, starring Indian actress Disha Patani, is out the same day.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSometimes,\u201d Karan continues, \u201cwe feel like we manifested doing this with you, Ryan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYou two just met in person for the first time \u2013 what brought you together?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>We were supposed to shoot the video, [when we] had enough of a finished version [of the song]. We just got back from Asia \u2013 we were in China and Vietnam and Japan and Korea, and we started in Bangkok for a few days. [Karan] wrapped his tour in India doing this massive sold out tour. And we were originally going to shoot the video in Little India, in Bangkok, and he got sick. It was the end of the tour. We punted and so we just now shot it this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran, you moved to Canada in your late teens. When did you become aware of OneRepublic as a music fan?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>When I heard <\/em>[hums <\/em>\u201cI Ain\u2019t Worried\u201d]. Ikky told me, because obviously I\u2019m born in Punjab and I wasn\u2019t aware of how the music worked out here. So, I came to Canada, met Ikky back in the days but before this collaboration me and Ikky always used to talk about how we wanted to do something out here with our music. But just being in Canada, that\u2019s how I heard there\u2019s this band called OneRepublic.<\/p>\n \n\tIt only took six months for this song to arrive from the time Savan connected you, Ryan, with Ikky. Tell me about that timeline.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>Initially, we were racing: \u201cCan we get it out in November, December?\u201d I was like, what are we thinking? It\u2019s Christmas. It\u2019s a death trap, you\u2019re gonna get smashed by Mariah [Carey], you\u2019re gonna get smashed by Ariana [Grande], and just all the other stuff. So then we punted to February, which I\u2019m really happy about because we\u2019re going to be back in Asia a couple of times this year and India is going to be part of that. So the time is perfect and this is one of those where it\u2019s like, I didn\u2019t expect to love a bilingual record as much as this. I\u2019ve probably listened to this demo more than anything, honestly, because it just feels good. And I think we\u2019re even talking about doing an English language version as well. Most of our fans don\u2019t speak Punjab.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran, why do you think Punjabi music is up next and, thanks to OneRepublic, catching on in the States?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>I feel like people are more open now, even artists, to new languages, working with people, creating new ideas and it just helps artists like me to bring what they have [to] the table. This is the time for artists like me to actually experiment. My main thing is I just want to make the first Punjabi record that goes everywhere. My Spotify wasn\u2019t like this always. It\u2019s just happening over the last three-four years [of gradual growth]. We can see it happening in front of our eyes; if people want it, why don\u2019t we just serve them what they want? Like, people in India want English on Indian records. They love these collaborations. They love when I\u2019m singing in Hindi or Punjabi and then a verse in English comes. Even some rappers from India are rapping in English and Hindi. People are already into it. And we just need to do it more in a proper way.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>And one of the main reasons Punjabi music has exploded, including in cities and regions of India \u2013 because Punjabi is from the north \u2013 like Bombay, where five years ago, nobody knew what Punjabi music was\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>They didn\u2019t want to hear it, honestly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>He\u2019s the reason. Honestly, he\u2019s one of the main reasons that Punjabi music has exploded. He was the right person at the right time. Anyone who\u2019s not paying attention to India or Southeast Asia right now, on a cultural tip, is asleep at the wheel.<\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>Our first thing was to actually take Punjabi all over India. And now, a few songs have blown up in India. And now this song is for the States or any place where they don\u2019t care what language it\u2019s in, it\u2019s just a good song. And that\u2019s all we\u2019re trying to do here, man, and hopefully it\u2019s going to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>Teach people some Punjabi too.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>If Ryan understands it\u2026 it\u2019s not that hard. Yesterday we made some content for social media and he\u2019s speaking Punjabi fluently. Hopefully, in our next song, I\u2019ll be singing a verse in English and you\u2019ll be singing a verse in Punjabi.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat are the key production elements of a Punjabi song?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>In this record there was a learning curve for me. I\u2019ve obviously heard Punjabi music and Hindi music, and musically there\u2019s a lot of similarities in Punjabi and Hindi. The language is different, obviously. But you\u2019re using a tabla. There\u2019s hand drums that are being used, some of which exist in the States, some of which don\u2019t. One of my favorite sections of the whole record Ikky did, which is a drum break in the bridge that\u2019s just a jam, it\u2019s just a dance moment. It\u2019s so festive and full of life and it\u2019s layers of tabla and Indian hand drums and Punjabi instruments. The only time I\u2019ve ever used any of that was if I\u2019m doing Timbaland style hip-hop stuff because he leaned heavy into East Indian and Punjabi instruments. It\u2019s not a mandolin. It sounds like a mandolin to us, but it\u2019s basically an Indian version of a mandolin that\u2019s a key element throughout the whole song. We\u2019re not using a sitar or anything like that, it\u2019s a little too shtick. And then the cadence, it\u2019s all swung. If you think about it, all their music is played by hand. So I used all live kicks when I did the drums. It\u2019s weird to reference, but I was thinking of stuff from like, 10-12 years ago. I didn\u2019t want it to feel too modern. I love Sabrina Carpenter, but we\u2019re not making \u201cEspresso.\u201d It\u2019s a different style. So I had to lean into the cadence of what his verses were and Ikky helped a ton because I was like, \u201cI\u2019m not going to be the white idiot that steps foot into a culture and misappropriates it.\u201d It has to be exact.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>And the way you did it, it doesn\u2019t sound forced. It\u2019s one of my favorite tracks that I\u2019ve ever worked on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTell me about filming the music video together with the band.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>It\u2019s like a story of our concert that\u2019s [hopefully] happening in the future, in India\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>That\u2019s really what it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>It was two days [of filming] in a row. Kind of tiring, but we made a lot of memories there. I\u2019ll remember that for the rest of my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>We were in a Hollywood backlot, which was pretty cool. I mean, from my perspective, I was like, this is a Bollywood video. There\u2019s big time elements of Bollywood happening on camera.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>It\u2019s a mix.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat are your hopes for the song and video once they arrive?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tKaran: <\/strong>Honestly, this is just the beginning and I\u2019m just happy that we have this relationship now. I feel this big brother vibe from Ryan and I know if I need some guidance in the future\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRyan: <\/strong>Just text.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNext summer, the goal is I want to go [to India] and be in a taxi cab or a Tuk Tuk and I want to hear this playing somewhere in the streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve had things like this happen once in a blue moon. Everything happened so effortlessly and so seamlessly, including even now, the video getting cancelled and coming together and [getting] Disha who\u2019s massive and just crushed it.\u00a0 All of those things threaded the needle for a multicultural record like this, it\u2019s so exciting. I know people are going to love it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n